A water and sanitation expert, Patrick Apoya, has cautioned the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), against spearheading a planned project to construct 500 boreholes in various parts of the country.<\/p>\n
According to him, the Commission\u2019s mandate does not include undertaking such projects but rather supervising them.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”LtaeqapHuXYCVQLHMgVFHu1bKEVrPuz8″]The PURC has been accused by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), of conniving with government to inflate the unit cost of the said boreholes, to fund the governing National Democratic Congress\u2019 (NDC) election campaign.<\/p>\n
A letter authorized by the PURC and addressed to the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), in October 2016, sought an approval to single source some selected contractors, to carry out the water project.<\/p>\n
But according to Mr. Apoya, the approach was wrong.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast<\/strong> show<\/strong> on Wednesday, November 23, he said the PURC\u2019s direct involvement in the project could plunge it into \u201ccredibility problems.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey [PURC] oversees, but they don\u2019t have to physically do it. You are the person regulating the sector. The PURC does not regulate the rural water sub-sector. They provide advice to assemblies to be able to do the regulations themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe PURC doesn\u2019t have that capacity of oversee a full-blown water supply system. They are very competent in their area of work; but if they delve into areas that they don\u2019t have expertise in, it can end in credibility problems for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Apoya expressed concern over the\u00a0silence of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency about\u00a0the development, since most of the areas listed to have the boreholes fall under their jurisdiction.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy will the PURC decide that all these towns, fall under the pro-poor consideration and we are going to provide water for them. That is extremely irregular. Pro-poor interventions target areas that need to be served; yet water is not reaching them. But these areas we are mentioning are full schemes we are providing for the communities. They are not pro-poor schemes, they are normal water supply schemes that ordinarily should be handled by the Community Health and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), and I don\u2019t know why CWSA is not raising any flags,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n ‘Gov’ borehole project cost inflated’<\/strong><\/p>\n The opposition New Patriotic Party at a press conference on Tuesday, said the amount for the boreholes has been inflated, by the PURC, to enable the Mahama-led administration siphon public funds for its campaign activities.<\/p>\n “The total cost of the project for the 500 bore-holes\u00a0is\u00a0GH\u00a230million.\u2019 And, no matter where the\u00a0borehole\u00a0is being dug, the rate per unit is quoted at GH\u00a260,000. This, ladies and gentlemen, is four times, the market rate,\u201d the NPP said.<\/p>\n But the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) defended its decision to spend about GHc30 million in constructing 500 boreholes in selected communities across the country saying the projects which are yet to commence, are \u201cintegrated water systems\u201d saying the cost of such projects are higher than normal boreholes.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Jonas Nyabor\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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